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Russia’s human rights council finds no serious violations at constitution amendments vote

The council’s Chairman Valery Fadeyev pointed out that the council members focused their attention on epidemic safety but also failed to find any violations

© Yuri Smityuk/TASS

MOSCOW, June 28. /TASS/. Members of Russia's Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights have visited 80 polling stations since Thursday to find no serious violations during the vote on amendments to Russia’s constitution, the council’s Chairman Valery Fadeyev said on Saturday.

"Colleagues from our council have already visited 80 polling stations in various regions across the country. We do not have the resource as large (as the Russian Civic Chamber’s - TASS). We cannot bring together 500,000 observers, but people in the Human Rights Council are very experienced. There are no serious remarks (concerning violations)," Fadeyev said.

Fadeyev pointed out that the council members focused their attention on epidemic safety but also failed to find any violations.

Nationwide voting on constitutional amendments started in Russia on June 25. The official voting day under the presidential decree is July 1 but due to the coronavirus situation the voting period was extended for a week, from June 25 through July 1. Vote counting will begin in regions after 20:00 local time on July 1, when polling stations close. Along with the extended voting period (from June 25 to July 1), people can cast their votes outside polling stations at specially organized voting areas, including outdoors, or use contactless voting at home or the Mobile Voter application. Additionally, residents of Moscow and the Nizhny Novgorod region can vote online.

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